[RJ-Imunique]

I'm new to the industry and I must admit that this has been one frustrating process for me. I've been doing a lot of research and learning lots of new things, especially from this site. However, I'm not totally sure if I'm finding the correct answer to the question I have. Let me give you a small scenario and maybe you can help.

I went to an event called Sisterhood Showcare. A vendor there was making t-shirts on the spot. The custom designs were already pre-made. She had maybe 15 different designs. The customer picked the design they desired, the vendor positioned the design on a blank shirt or bag and closed the heat press for a few seconds, handed the item to the customer and collected an easy $10 - $20 bucks.

Needless to say, this was motivation for me to get into something that I've always wanted to do. The quality of the shirt and design was nice. You didn't feel any excess transfer paper. Anything that was not part of the design faded into the actual shirt or "disappeared". There was no cutting. I pulled her to the side to ask who did she get her transfers from and the type she used because I wanted to start a SMALL business similiar to hers. She denied me that information stating that she would be hurting her own business to give up that information. So I'm asking you....what company sells custom transfers as what I have described? After doing some research I've found information on plastisol and vinyl transfer but I'm not even sure if that's the correct answer. Any help????

 

[spankthafunk]

You are probaly looking at Plastisol Transfers.

Vinyl is solid colors (even though I think you can print on them for decals) that you use for sign making and decals (stickers). They make a vinyl transfer paper that allows you to print vinyl onto shirts, which is durable, gives a soft hand, and can maintain bright colors on dark garments like white.

Plastisol Transfers are transfers that have been screen printed onto. You usually buy these by the bulk and have them made for you, otherwise you'd just be screen printing directly onto the shirt. This method will give you the option of doing full color prints, but can be costly to buy up front. The transfers just transfer the plastisol ink to the garment, leaving a screen printed type t-shirt that is pressed instead.

If the vendor was doing full color prints or photo prints, it was most likely plastisol. If they were simple one color jobs, it might have been vinyl.

 

[Lnfortun]

Here is a thread that will answer 90% of what you are looking for. Good luck.

Make sure to read from the first to last post.

Where do you buy YOUR custom plastisol transfers? - a list of vendors! - T-Shirt Forums